The Way We Work

3.9/5 ( ratings)

The way we work has changed profoundly in recent years.

Australians are now near the top of the list of working hours in developed countries; a substantial and growing proportion of people work part-time with multiple employers – not all by choice; unpaid internships are the normal entry path for young people; women are no longer forced to resign when they marry or become pregnant, but the wage gap remains; manufacturing and agricultural jobs have given way to working in services, and now those jobs that don’t actually demand hands on contact are also moving offshore.

Many welcome the flexibility of the new environment. For others, though, it represents a deepening of risk and insecurity. The proletariat is giving way to what has been called the precariat, a new class who lack the stability and certainty of regular work or predictable social welfare.

Griffith REVIEW 45: The Way We Work explores the extraordinary structural changes in work caused by technology, globalisation, economic theory, the collapse of the unions and an ageing population.

Featuring essays from Ashley Hay, Gideon Haigh, Mandy Sayer, Rebecca Huntley, Peter Mares, Josephine Rowe and more, The Way We Work asks: How does work shape our values, our citizens, cultures and communities? As our work changes, how will it change us? How does the blurring of work and leisure through ‘access anywhere’ technology affect our attitudes to work? How are older Australians going to find consistent and flexible work when age discrimination is rife? Will flexible work help decrease the gender gap?

Australia is not America, where millions struggle to make ends meet with inadequate jobs and social support, or one of those European countries where unemployment rates have reached well into double digits and remained there for years, or one of the many countries where work itself may be life threatening.

But even here work is less secure and less predictable, forcing us to adapt. We exist in professional landscapes that didn’t exist fifteen years ago, that are still being altered and transformed today, and that are probably all but incomprehensible to our parents’ generation.

One thing remains constant though, work is essential to economic wellbeing and meaning, so getting it right is important.